Athletic Complex

It has taken 20 years to make the transformation from cattle-rearing to recreation, but the farm that once belonged to a family of German immigrants is now land for all of their neighbors to enjoy.Kinder Farm Park, a 288-acre parcel along Jumpers Hole Road in Severna Park, will soon open to residents, who have been waiting since 1979 to enjoy the pastures and fields. The first part of a three-phase, $12 million expansion is near completion, but many residents have been enjoying the view already, said Ranger Bill Offutt.

It has taken 20 years to make the transformation from cattle-rearing to recreation, but the farm that once belonged to a family of German immigrants is now land for all of their neighbors to enjoy.Kinder Farm Park, a 288-acre parcel along Jumpers Hole Road in Severna Park, will soon open to residents, who have been waiting since 1979 to enjoy the pastures and fields.The first part of a three-phase, $12 million expansion is near completion, but many residents have been enjoying the view already, said Ranger Bill Offutt.

The Howard County parks department's capital budget for the next fiscal year has been cut by more than $900,000 but the cuts will not affect a proposed athletic complex and new park in Elkridge, officials said last week."

Clear skies and bright sunshine have been ordered tomorrow for opening day festivities for the youngsters who participate in Lake Shore Youth Baseball.More than 700 young players and their coaches will be parading up Woods Road starting at 9 a.m. Woods Road will be closed from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. between the Lake Shore Athletic Complex and Mountain Road.Marchers and their families should arrive no later than 8:15 a.m. Parking will be allowed at the athletic complex lots, but not at Phelps Liquors or along Woods Road.

The county Board of Appeals will allow an Odenton company to build a 250-foot cellular phone tower in Crofton next to a proposed athletic complex.In a decision released Friday, the board voted 6-1 to grant West Shore Communications Inc. an exception to build a lattice tower on 2 acres off Route 424 next to the Arundel Volunteer Fire Department, overturning a county hearing officer's decision.The land is zoned for agricultural and residential use, and the tower is considered a public utility.

State legislators representing Pasadena denounced a County Council bill yesterday that would use money once earmarked for the Lake Shore Athletic Complex to pay for asbestos removal and demolition of abandoned warehouses on county-owned property on Ordnance Road in Glen Burnie.The District 31 delegation -- Sen. Philip C. Jimeno and Dels. Joan Cadden, W. Ray Huff and Charles W. Kolodziejski -- wrote to County Council Chairman Edward Middlebrooks opposing the transfer of $330,000 left over from the project.

The county soon will close a deal to pay $1.2 million for 80 acres for an athletic complex on Route 424 near Crofton, County Executive Robert R. Neall has announced.County officials signed an agreement Wednesday to purchase the land next to the Arundel Volunteer Fire Department from Bernard Lerch III and his brother, Gary D. Lerch. Settlement is scheduled for Jan. 3. Local officials and county planners soon will begin work to develop a plan for the new park."It's a real relief to know that we have more resources and more facilities to offer the community as a whole, and specifically, our children," said Dorie Folstein, past president of the Crofton Athletic Council.

With a two-year campaign behind him, 3rd District County Councilman-elect Thomas Redmond is looking forward to getting to work and making good on his campaign promises.Crowded schools and congested roads were the issues that defined the race between Mr. Redmond, the owner of a towing and auto parts company, and the Republican incumbent, Carl G. "Dutch" Holland.Waivers to the adequate-facilities law granted to developers in recent years allowed construction of houses even though the roads and schools were at or near capacity.

The people of Deer Park have spoken. The question is, have they spoken wrongly?Residents of the western Baltimore County community turned out in force at a recent public hearing to tell county officials they wanted no part of a government plan to build a recreation facility near the corner of Deer Park Road and Berrymans Lane. The county and the state would have jointly ponied up about $2 million for 138 acres of privately owned farmland. About 19 acres would have been used for the park, the rest as a buffer for the NTC state's Soldiers Delight environmental area to the south of the intersection.

An old carnival ride, animal cages and an abandoned school bus were among the tons of garbage county employees hauled away yesterday from the future Lake Shore Athletic Complex.Mary Crow, a coordinator of the county's Coastweeks '92 clean up, said 196 county workers took the day off from their regular duties to clear the 127-acre farm of illegally dumped debris.More than 100 tons of scrap metal, tires and trash were pulled out of the dense underbrush and scrub trees.The metal and tires will be recycled, Ms. Crow said.

When Kristyn Kuhn started working at Severn School in the early 1990s, students were still using the original 1922 dining hall and a gym and academic buildings from the 1960s. Plays were performed in a basement where low ceilings made staging the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet a claustrophobic experience. "Juliet's head was bumping into a sprinkler head on the ceiling," said Kuhn, now the school's director of communications and the parent of two sons in the upper school. "There were great programs, but the facilities were so poor."

The city's financial oversight committee approved yesterday the sale of 50 acres north of Television Hill to Loyola College, allowing the school to build an athletic complex. The five-member Board of Estimates voted 4-1 to sell the land, which is partially landfill and partially woods, to the school for $348,698. Mayor Martin O'Malley, City Council President Sheila Dixon, City Solicitor Thurman W. Zollicoffer Jr. and Public Works Director George L. Winfield voted for the proposal, and Comptroller Joan M. Pratt voted against it after listening to neighborhood complaints about traffic, noise and the destruction of woodlands.

LIFE ALONG the congested eastern section of Mountain Road just got a little more complicated, thanks to a new county public works project on Woods Road. Earlier this month, a sign appeared, seemingly overnight, informing commuters that a section of Woods Road would soon close temporarily. Vehicles coming from Mountain Road would be allowed only as far west as the Lake Shore Athletic Complex. No dates for road closure were listed on the sign. "The sign just appeared telling us that Woods Road was closed," said Wilbert Parks, a Ryan Road homeowner.

UNDER AN overcast sky early Saturday morning, more than 50 horse lovers got down and dirty clearing hiking and horse trails along the perimeter of the Lake Shore Athletic Complex on Woods Road. The spring cleanup, sponsored by the Pasadena Horse and Pony Association, drew riders young and old, a few non-horse people, even a politician and a county official or two to cut debris and pick up trash along the almost five miles of trails at the complex. The volunteers, many accustomed to the barn-mucking aspects of horse ownership, were armed with trimmers of various sizes and plastic trash bags, ready to attack sticker bushes and trash along the trails.

Advancing a Loyola College dream downfield, the city Planning Commission approved last night the school's proposed acquisition of 71 acres for a large athletic complex -- over the outspoken objections of a dozen people who say it would destroy Woodberry's sylvan beauty. For nearly three years, Loyola officials have tried to come to terms with criticism of the project, which in its first phase would involve an intercollegiate athletic field with 6,000 spectator seats for lacrosse or soccer, along with two smaller practice fields.

Philip Dibben used to ride his horses from his Pasadena home about a mile to Bodkin Creek across open fields. More recently, he has had to truck his horses to Prince George's, Carroll or Montgomery counties to find trails because those he once used have been developed. "The trails that we have ridden for years have been disappearing," he said. The Pasadena Horse and Pony Association, of which Dibben is vice president, is working to change that. In response to a growing need for public horse-riding areas, the group is working on a volunteer effort to develop horse trails around the Lake Shore Athletic Complex.

It has taken 20 years to make the transformation from cattle-rearing to recreation, but the farm that once belonged to a family of German immigrants is now land for all of their neighbors to enjoy.Kinder Farm Park, a 288-acre parcel along Jumpers Hole Road in Severna Park, will soon open to residents, who have been waiting since 1979 to enjoy the pastures and fields. The first part of a three-phase, $12 million expansion is near completion, but many residents have been enjoying the view already, said Ranger Bill Offutt.

It has taken 20 years to make the transformation from cattle-rearing to recreation, but the farm that once belonged to a family of German immigrants is now land for all of their neighbors to enjoy.Kinder Farm Park, a 288-acre parcel along Jumpers Hole Road in Severna Park, will soon open to residents, who have been waiting since 1979 to enjoy the pastures and fields.The first part of a three-phase, $12 million expansion is near completion, but many residents have been enjoying the view already, said Ranger Bill Offutt.

The Howard County parks department's capital budget for the next fiscal year has been cut by more than $900,000 but the cuts will not affect a proposed athletic complex and new park in Elkridge, officials said last week."

The county Board of Appeals will allow an Odenton company to build a 250-foot cellular phone tower in Crofton next to a proposed athletic complex.In a decision released Friday, the board voted 6-1 to grant West Shore Communications Inc. an exception to build a lattice tower on 2 acres off Route 424 next to the Arundel Volunteer Fire Department, overturning a county hearing officer's decision.The land is zoned for agricultural and residential use, and the tower is considered a public utility.